State Man Gets Liver

Teenager Killed In Miami Crash Is Organ Donor

August 05, 1999|By DWIGHT F. BLINT; Courant Staff Writer

The yearlong journey to find a new liver for Guilford resident Chris Motzer Sr. ended early Wednesday morning in a Miami hospital.

Motzer, whose liver was destroyed by a hepatitis C infection he received during a blood transfusion, was given a liver from a 16- year-old boy who died in a car accident in Miami. The surgery was done at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Motzer's wife, Cheryl, reported that her husband was unconscious after roughly 17 hours of surgery. He was in the intensive care unit Wednesday, but was doing well and had a good prognosis.

Cheryl Motzer said one of the surgeons described her husband's new liver as ``one of the healthiest'' he had seen in six years.

The liver, which turned pink almost immediately after being transplanted, is already producing bile and urine, she said. It has removed the toxins from Chris Motzer's body and most of the swelling in his abdomen has gone down, she said.

``He looks terrific,'' said Cheryl Motzer, who played with her granddaughter in the hospital while awaiting word. She checked in as often as permitted, every three hours throughout the surgery, which started Tuesday night and ended early Wednesday.

Although she is happy for her family, Motzer said she is sad for the family of the 16-year-old. She said her 60-year-old husband was also saddened that someone had to die for him to live. She is sending them a thank you letter describing her family.

Chris Motzer Jr. had been scheduled to donate part of his liver to his father. But doctors postponed the operation Friday after finding a lump on the young man's liver.

As a result of the cancellation, one of Motzer's sons and a son-in- law who had been with him in Miami had left Tuesday to return to Connecticut.

Cheryl Motzer, Chris Motzer Jr. and his wife remained behind. The lump on the younger Motzer's liver was to be examined again today.

Optimistic that the operation still might go through, Chris Motzer Sr. had called for the Rev. Lawrence Wrenn from the Archdiocese of Hartford to come to Florida and bless him.

Cheryl Motzer and Chris Jr. had just returned to their Florida home from picking up Wrenn at the airport when a doctor called to say they had found a liver, and that she should come to the hospital. The couple had moved to Florida temporarily because the wait time for a liver is shorter in Florida than in Connecticut.

She sent her son and Wrenn ahead, and called the airline, which paged the other family members as they were landing at Bradley International Airport.

Her son and son-in-law -- along with the daughter who had come to pick up the two men at the airport -- got on the next flight back to Florida.

``Somehow it doesn't seem quite coincidental,'' said Cheryl Motzer, who felt that her husband's life was saved by divine intervention. She added that before the surgery, the doctor also held hands with her and her family members and prayed.

Although Motzer believes that the worst is over, she said doctors will need to watch the liver for another six months.